Dale Dougherty

The Making

of Make:

More than mere consumers of technology, we to see the impact of technology in our personal lives. are makers, adapting technology to our needs and So much is possible. integrating it into our lives. Some of us are born MAKE is a new magazine dedicated to showing makers and others, like me, become makers almost how to make technology work for you. At the core without realizing it. of the magazine are projects that show you how to Maybe it started when I burned my first music CD, use technology in interesting and practical ways. A ripping individual songs from packaged CDs and MAKE project is rewarding and fun as an experience, assembling my own playlist. This was unthinkable and it produces something you can share with your just five years ago, and now it’s how we make our friends and family. Becoming a maker is a lot like own music — much to the chagrin of the recording learning how to become a better cook — you can music industry. follow or improvise upon the work of experts. Maybe it started when I got Wi-Fi working, not In the process of developing MAKE, I have met just for myself but for my whole family. Suddenly, all kinds of expert makers who were excited to the computer wasn’t locked down to a desk and contribute their ideas and their favorite projects. wired to an outlet. It was free to roam, like a cell- There are some I’d call extreme makers who bring phone, and I began finding new places such as coffee highly specialized skills and experience working with houses that I could call home, or at least home-office. both new and old technology. They specialize in the Maybe it started when I brought my digital camera unexpected and go beyond what you or I would ever and laptop on vacation and found that my slideshow consider practical. We can learn a lot by following was ready before the vacation was even over. what they do, and I’m happy that MAKE provides a I’m sure that most of us share these experiences, showcase for their work. and many others that demonstrate the impact of I hope you enjoy getting to know the experts new technologies in our lives. Think of how many as well as meeting other makers like yourself. We devices each of us interacts with on a regular basis expect that our website will become a place to share today. And that’s only the beginning. Neil Gershenfeld your experiences building the projects in the maga-of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, who is featured zine, as well as a home for projects that you develop. in this issue, writes in his book When Things Start to I look forward to meeting you there.

Think that “personal computing has not gone far Let me know what you think of MAKE and how you enough; it lets us shape our digital environment but use technology to make your own life better. You can not our physical environment.” In other words, tech- contact me at dale@oreilly.com. nology that allows us to create complex things will soon become as affordable as the technology we use to create and manage data. We are just beginning

Dale Dougherty is the editor and publisher of MAKE and the publisher of O’Reilly Network ( www.oreillynet.com).

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